The purpose was to evaluate the efficiacy of the time-of-flight MRA of the carotid artery with a 1.0 Tesla system in comparison to intraarterial digital subtraction angiography for the assessment of carotid artery disease. 101 patients with suspected stenosis of the carotid artery were examined with a 1.0 Tesla scanner in time-of-flight-technique and with the selective i.a. DSA in parallel. Morphological pathologies were registered for all arteries, stenosis of the internal carotid artery of both examinations were blindly graded by applying the NASCET criteria (mild, moderately, severely or occluded). Three different assessment methods were conducted for the MRA data. Kappa, weighted kappa, intraclass correlation were calculated for MRA results compared to DSA. Of the 84 common carotid bifurcation, 66 were classified as mild stenosis by DSA. In this category, MRA correctly identified 60 of these as mild stenosis. Among 60 common carotid artery bifurcation graded as moderate by DSA, 29 were correctly graded as moderate by MRA. Among 21 common carotid artery bifurcation graded as severe by DSA, 20 of these were correctly graded by the MRA. There were 16 complete occlusions which were all correctly graded by MRA. A good kappa value was calculated for the data. In general the MRA were considered to find a good agreement with the DSA, but tended to overestimate stenosis, especially in the range of moderate stenosis. The aim of diagnosis is exact grading of carotid stenosis. MRA with its high agreement with DSA can be regarded as an accurate screening method of the common carotid bifurcation.